Personal Demons

by David Morrison

  “It’s a portal to another dimension.”

  Major Wilson shook his head, “Thirty years in this job. Never seen anything like it.”

  “All that power in their hands can’t be allowed,” I said.

  “That’s without a doubt,” Major Wilson replied, “Right. Two teams, one from the north and one from the south, Jason, you - JASON!”

  I was already out of there, racing across the field as fast as I could. In my pumped up state that was pretty fast. I had my mission, Major Wilson had his. Besides, I knew I could handle this. Something had been changing in me over the last few days; the more I’d felt the fire in my body, the more I’d been able to control it. Before all of this madness, my strength and speed had come about from feeling angry or scared, as adrenaline shot through my system. Since I’d been using my abilities more and more in the last few days, I was gaining control over them.

  With a dozen murderous monsters at my back – not to mention Major Wilson – my main priority was getting Kate out of there before the killing started. I’d had a quiet word with Dee as we’d neared the combat zone. As soon as we had Kate, we were gone.

  Sure, I was furious with Victoria for her lies and betrayal, and I wanted to stop her lunatic schemes if it was possible, but keeping Kate safe was the top priority. The adults and the monsters could sort out the rest.

  “I’m coming with you,” Dee had said as we’d raced towards the stones.

  “No,” I’d replied, “You hang back. If I can’t get Kate out of there, then it’s up to you.”

  Dee nodded.

  “Are you sure about this, Jason?”

  “I’m really, really not, but I don’t know what else to do.”

  I still didn’t want to kill anyone. I didn’t want anyone to die. I didn’t really give a damn about revenge at that point.

  Not then, at any rate.

  That would come later.

  At the time I still thought there might be a way to stop all of this without any bloodshed. If I could just bring Victoria to her senses, persuade her to drop the mad scheme she and her brother had hatched. All I wanted was for Kate to be safe and for Victoria to go back to the person I’d known – or thought I’d known. I was still clinging to the idea that somewhere inside her there was a shred of decency despite everything I’d seen and everything she’d done.

  I was being laughably naive.

  The security forces, dressed in their standard grey camouflage gear and carrying assault rifles were spread out around the edges of the outer stones. Most of them were paying more attention to Vincent’s light display and the portal than anything else. Too dumbfounded to know what to do, not really understanding what was taking place, or what the stakes were.

  I raced the short distance from the copse where we’d been hiding towards the nearest soldier, catching him with a punch in the stomach before he could react. I moved like lightning, the fire in my leg muscles making me impossibly fast. Before they realised what was happening, I’d made it to the van. Knocked down the guard that was standing with Victoria and Kate. That was as far as I got before being surrounded by four men pointing their assault rifles at me.

  I stopped, hands raised. It was a good enough run. It got me in front of Kate, in front of Victoria.

  Victoria raised a sharp hand, and four trigger fingers relaxed. They kept their rifles trained on me, but didn’t shoot. Kate looked at me with her eyes wide.

  “Jason...” Victoria drawled. She didn’t seem surprised to see me.

  Bursts of light and twisting shadows swept across us, the white light so strong and the shadows so dark that colours were almost reduced to stark black and white. A hundred metres from us, Vincent was absorbing power as it spewed out of the portal, laughing with the thrill of it

  “Stop this, Victoria,” I said, “Stop all of this before it’s too late.”

  Victoria laughed. She glanced across at one of the monitors hooked up to the cables running around the five standing stones where Vincent and his portal were. She smiled, satisfied with the readings. Then she returned her attention to me. Mockery in her voice.

  “Jason the hero has to save the day, doesn’t he? Good grief, I wish you’d grow up. You have no idea what you are interfering with.”

  She was too far gone to reason with. Her mocking tone, the expression in her eyes told me that. This was Victoria’s true face. Beyond reason, beyond morality, beyond caring.

  The only thing left for me to try to do was to stop the carnage that was coming.

  “Please, Victoria. You have to take these men and get out of here. Get everyone out of here. Now.”

  A flicker of fear crossed Victoria’s face. Through the high of her triumphant madness, she suddenly realised that if I was free then the others must be as well.

  “What have you done?” she choked.

  “They’re out, Victoria. All of them – and they’re coming for you. You need to run, all of you.”

  “You idiot,” Victoria whispered, “What have you done, Jason?”

  The sudden sound of gunfire and screams answered the question for me.

  Chapter Fifty Three: The Battle of Avebury

  I moved, instinct over analysis. There was no time to think. I raced towards Kate, shoving Victoria to one side, ignoring the look of rage and fear on her face. Four men with rifles trained on me suddenly turned their attention away, to Major Wilson’s strike force. I saw claws, fangs, wings and fury pitted against guns, soldiers and fists.

  Blood and bullets and death. The sound of the automatic rifles firing desperately into the freezing night. The gurgling screams of men and women as they died.

  The demons and angels struck hard and fast, tearing through the soldiers like confetti. The werewolves unleashed their fury, ignoring the bullets that spat at them. A single-minded goal for all of them: Reach Vincent Pryce and the portal.

  I couldn’t see Alice anywhere. Having set the wheels in motion, she’d vanished. Perhaps to get reinforcements, if there were any. Perhaps simply to stay out of the line of fire.

  Two of the demons broke off from the main attack and ran towards us, preferring to focus on exacting revenge on Victoria Pryce than stopping Vincent. They were greeted with a hail of bullets as they ripped through the soldiers and failed to reach their goal. Victoria shouted commands at the soldiers, ordering them to protect her and her brother.

  The troll was the first to reach Vincent Pryce and the portal. She raced towards the warlock, grabbing a soldier as she did so. She swung the hapless soldier like a puppet at Vincent, who laughed as the soldier screamed. A burst of energy leapt from Vincent’s hands and the troll fell to the ground, dead. The soldier scrabbled away from the power-mad warlock and ran.

  From behind us, shots were fired. Major Wilson was methodically taking out the soldiers that threatened the group headed for Vincent. Faced with the onslaught of horrors, more of the soldiers abandoned their weapons and ran as far and as fast as they could.

  There were howls of triumph and despair in the night.

  I concentrated on one thing: Protecting Kate. I caught glimpses, snapshots of the mayhem and death as I focused on my mission.

  “Run!” I shouted to Kate.

  We ran as the sound of bullets being fired erupted all around us. The nearest cover was a van parked on the road thirty metres away. Bullets spat at my heels, one grazed my arm. I pushed Kate in front of me, shielding her with my body. We reached the van and flung ourselves behind it. Gunfire clattered against the side. I threw myself on top of Kate, protecting her from the bloodshed and bullets. More screams and gunshots. The hideous sounds of a massacre, but who were the killers and who were the victims was another question. It was bloody.

  “Stay down,” I whispered to Kate.

  I jumped back up. A soldier had chased after us, the others too concerned with the chaos that had erupted all around them. I knocked the rifle from his hands as the muzzle appeared around the edge of the van, grabbing the barrel and smacking him in
the face with the stock. I tossed the gun to one side as the soldier fell to the ground unconscious.

  I peered around the van to see a portrait of hell. Limbs separated from bodies. Bullets exploding in sprays of blood. The angels, werewolves and demons attacking Vincent, who lashed out at them with bolts of power sucked straight from the magical dimension.

  One of the angels grabbed a fallen soldier’s assault rifle and fired at Vincent. The bullets appeared to have no effect. Vincent cackled and then he began to physically grow. Seven feet, eight feet, ten, twelve, fifteen. Two of the angels launched into the air on their feeble wings, their hands becoming talons. Vincent swatted the angels away as they dived at him, hit them with bolts of power that sent them spinning away – but all the power he was using was draining the magical shield around him.

  A werewolf launched itself at his enormous midriff and Vincent staggered backwards as claws tore through his flesh. He screamed in pain and the werewolf burst into flames.

  Vincent placed a hand on his stomach, healing the wound instantly but the pain had broken his concentration. The energy stopped spewing out of the portal and into him. The monsters he was being attacked by had gone from a minor nuisance, flies to be swatted, to a serious problem. An angel slashed her claws across Vincent’s face.

  Victoria screamed in horror as the inevitable became clear. Vincent placed a hand to his cheek, healing the wound again, but he was shrinking back to his normal size. He reached a hand to the portal behind him, desperate to absorb more power.

  Balthazar grabbed his arm.

  And tore it off.

  Vincent staggered, placed a hand on the stump of his shoulder as blood sprayed out from it. He roared in pain, the shield around him completely gone, his body returned to his normal size, fear in his eyes as the monsters prepared to tear him to pieces. He desperately absorbed more energy from the portal, flung Balthazar back as his arm began to regrow, a hand emerging from the stump. His body glowed again as the energy raced into him.

  He started to put up a new barrier around himself, but it was too late.

  There was a shot from nearby. Major Wilson.

  Vincent’s head snapped back and he fell to the ground.

  All the magic in the world couldn’t save him from a clean headshot.

  The light coming from the standing stones crackled, the portal was starting to close. Balthazar, the surviving three demons, two angels and a werewolf moved fast. With whoops and howls, they leapt through the portal, making it to Arcadia - and safety.

  Balthazar paused for a split second, turned to look at me. I saw his mouth moving and despite the distance heard his voices – all dozen of them – as if he was standing right next to me.

  “See you around, kid.”

  Then he followed the other supernaturals through.

  Chapter Fifty Four: Magic and Loss

  I saw Victoria as her remaining three soldiers bundled her into a helicopter a hundred metres away. She glared at me, her face a mask of rage. Her twin brother was dead, her plans thwarted. The person she blamed was close enough to kill, but she had to leave.

  Her eyes locked onto mine. Her finger pointed at me in unbridled fury.

  Then the helicopter took off and Victoria was gone.

  I stared after the helicopter, unable to do anything. Victoria needed to pay for her crimes, but I was helpless to stop her escaping.

  The battle was finished. With no-one left to keep it open the portal was slowly shrinking.

  “Is it over?” Kate said, picking herself up off the ground.

  “I think so. There’s no-one left. Just you and me.”

  “And Dee?”

  “Here.”

  Dee, in his djinn form, materialized out of thin air. I yelped.

  “How did you do that?”

  “The portal opening, it’s restored the rest of my power,” Dee said, “I was watching over you mate, in my spirit form. Almost like old times, really. Had to knock out two soldiers as they were headed this direction.”

  Dee coughed and I finally noticed the red patch spreading across his chest. He fell to the ground.

  “Dee!” I shouted.

  Dee half grinned at me through teeth that were turning red.

  “Like I said. Almost like old times. Just with a few more bullets flying around. One of them got lucky. Well, not lucky for me, obviously.”

  I stared in shock at Dee as he coughed again.

  “Are you...are you going to be alright?”

  “I’ve been shot in the chest, mate. I don’t heal like you.”

  “There must be something we can do,” Kate said.

  Dee waved a hand at the slowly shrinking portal

  “You can get me through that,” he coughed.

  “Will that help?”

  “Probably not, but at least I’ll be home again.”

  I looked aghast at my best friend and former protector.

  “Dee, it can’t end like this!”

  “It has to end somehow,” Dee said, with a wincing shrug.

  “I told you to hang back!”

  “Since when have either of us ever actually listened to each other telling us what to do?”

  I felt my stomach sink and pinpricks of tears forming at the corner of my eyes.

  “Chin up, mate,” Dee said, “you did good. Time for me to go home.”

  Dee struggled to his feet and put one arm around Kate’s shoulders and the other around mine. With halting steps we moved towards the shrinking portal. I avoided looking at the fallen bodies, soldiers and supernaturals alike.

  “Best not to get too close,” Dee said, “these things can be unpredictable.”

  We gazed through the glowing white portal. The dark landscape on the other side shimmered. In the distance a dark sea rolled and I thought I saw ships, perhaps the lights from a town.

  Dee lifted his arms from our shoulders for the last few metres. He reached the portal and turned to face us.

  “I’m sorry,” I said.

  “What part of any of this was your fault?” Dee asked.

  He meant it, but I still felt guilty as hell.

  “Kate,” Dee said.

  Kate was looking as upset as I felt, and was biting her lip to hold back her own tears.

  “Yeah?”

  “Keep him out of trouble.”

  Kate couldn’t help a half smile and a quiet chuckle. She wiped her eyes.

  “What, that’s my job now?”

  Dee grinned, “Well someone’s got to do it. I warn you now, though...the hours suck and the pay is lousy.”

  Dee coughed again, turned and stepped through the portal.

  Kate slipped her hand into mine and squeezed as the portal shrank. Dee’s figure became obscured by strands of energy. He lifted a hand to wave. I lifted a hand and waved back, still fighting back the tears.

  At the last minute, George hurried across the body-strewn field.

  “Wait for me!” he shouted.

  The goblin raced around us and dived through the narrow opening at the last second before it closed. George yelped as the portal snapped shut on the tip of his tail, chopping off a centimetre or so that didn’t make it to the other side.

  The portal vanished, leaving the survivors of Victoria’s prison safely on the other side. They were free from Victoria Pryce at long last, and in a place where Section 19 could never reach them.

  Dee was gone, everyone else was dead or somewhere else.

  Everyone except Major Wilson.

  A sudden fear hit me. What if he planned to take me out as well? I span round, ready to run.

  I needn’t have worried.

  Major Wilson was stood thirty odd metres away. He lifted his assault rifle, satisfied. He paused, his hands still on the gun as he glanced across at me.

  He nodded once - a quick, curt gesture - then walked away and into the darkness.

  And then Section 19 finally showed up, late as usual, their cranky vans racing towards us.

  Flashligh
ts shone in our faces as Kate and I stood in the damp grass, shell-shocked but alive. We held our hands up.

  “Don’t shoot!” I called out, “I’m with Section 19. I need to talk to Moorecroft.”

  The flashlights were lowered. Through the white spots dancing around my eyes I saw the squad leader I’d met twice before, once at school and the second time in High Wycombe.

  “Kid,” he said, surveying the devastation and dead bodies, “I swear you have more lives than a damn cat.”

  “Trust me,” I muttered, “You have no idea.”

  Chapter Fifty Five: The Cavalry, Late as Usual

  The debriefing took several hours after we’d been driven to a safe house. Moorecroft separated Kate and myself.

  “You took your time,” I told Moorecroft.

  “As bizarre as this may sound, young man, we have other things to do apart from running around cleaning up your mess. You’ve got a lot of explaining to do.”

  I bristled at that.

  “First off, this wasn’t my mess at all. Well, mostly it wasn’t. You were right about the Pryces. They had a prison for supernaturals under their mansion. They were experimenting on them and they were planning to open a portal to a magical dimension so they could absorb all the magical power and become actual gods. I mean real, all powerful, all commanding gods. Now they aren’t.”

  I paused to let that sink in

  “You’re welcome,” I added.

  Seven hours passed as Moorecroft drilled me for all the details. Section 19 checked the Pryces’ mansion after confirming that anyone else near to the standing stones of Avebury was dead. The mansion was still blazing away, and by the time the fire brigade got to it, it was a skeletal, collapsing shell. Everything underground had been destroyed, all the equipment smashed and burned.

  “What a train wreck,” Moorecroft muttered, once he was satisfied with my account.

  I’d ended up telling him everything over the course of the debriefing, which had started out like a full on interrogation and ended – surprisingly – with more sympathy than suspicion. I was too wiped out to care whether Section 19 knew I was an experiment or not. With Dee gone, there was no point hiding that from them either.